Steinbeck as an International Writer
May 4–6, 2016
San José, California
sponsored by
MARTHA HEASLEY COX CENTER
FOR STEINBECK STUDIES
The International Society of Steinbeck Scholars
Keynote Speakers
Richard Astro, Provost Emeritus and Professor of English, Drexel University
Robert DeMott, Edwin and Ruth Kennedy Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Ohio University
Conference Directors
Nicholas P. Taylor, Director, Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies
Tom Barden, Professor Emeritus, University of Toledo
Barbara A. Heavilin, Professor Emeritus, Taylor University
Conference Steering Committee
Danica Čerče, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Chuck Etheridge, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
Mimi Gladstein, University of Texas, El Paso
Luchen Li, University of New Hampshire
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Steinbeck as an International Writer / Weds, May 4
Wednesday, May 4
11:30AM – 12:45PM
Check-In and Buffet Lunch
Center for Steinbeck Studies, MLK Library 5th Floor
1:00PM - 2:15PM
Welcome and Keynote Address
Schiro Program Room, MLK Library 5th Floor
Welcome
Nicholas P. Taylor
Director, Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies
Barbara A. Heavilin
Professor Emeritus, Taylor University
Keynote Address
Richard Astro
Provost Emeritus and Professor of English, Drexel University
2:30PM - 3:45PM (Concurrent Sessions)
Mothers, Matriarchy, and Mother Earth in The Grapes of Wrath
Schiro Program Room, MLK Library 5th Floor
Barbara Heavilin
Professor Emeritus, Taylor University
“A Sacred Bond Broken: Humanity and the Earth in The Grapes of Wrath”
Rachel King
Winthrop University
“’She’s old an’ she’s ornery’: The Feminization of the Automobile in The Grapes of Wrath”
Iti Roychowdhury (paper presented in absentia)
Amity University Madhya Pradesh
“Their Dreams - Her Dreams: Exploring the Portrayal of Mother in The Grapes of Wrath by
Steinbeck and The Mother by Gorky”
Steinbeck, Modernism, and Biography
Cultural Heritage Center, MLK Library 5th Floor
Paul Douglass
San Jose State University
“Why Isn't John Steinbeck Considered a ‘Modernist’ Writer?”
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Steinbeck as an International Writer / Weds, May 4
Brian Duchaney
Boston University
“Steinbeck, World War II, and his Public Literary Memoir: a Literary Investigation of his New
York Herald Tribune Writings”
Kevin Hearle
Independent Scholar and Founding Member of the Steinbeck Review Editorial Board
“‘The Genuine American’ in Stockholm: The International Context of Steinbeck's Speech
Accepting the Nobel Prize in Literature”
Katherine King
San Jose State University
“Modernism and the Munroe Curse”
4:00PM - 5:15PM
Reading Steinbeck at Home and Abroad
Schiro Program Room, MLK Library 5th Floor
Megan Barnes
Loyola Marymount University
“Sir Steinbeck and the Green Knight: A Re-Examination of To a God Unknown”
Chuck Etheridge
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
“Immigration, Migration, and East of Eden (in manuscript and in the published version)”
Aya Kubota
Bunka Gakuen University
“A Japanese Appreciation of Of Mice and Men: Farm Hands Knowing ‘Mono no Aware’”
5:15PM – 6:45PM
Dinner on your own
7:00PM – 8:30PM
Beethoven in Love
Schiro Program Room, MLK Library 5th Floor
A recital of Beethoven’s vocal music featuring SJSU music professors Joseph Frank and Layna
Chianakis and their students. This event is part of MLK Library’s First Wednesdays series and is
sponsored by the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies.
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Steinbeck as an International Writer / Thurs, May 5
Thursday, May 5
8:00AM - 9:00AM
Continental Breakfast
Center for Steinbeck Studies, MLK Library 5th Floor
9:00AM - 10:15AM
Re-examining Sweet Thursday
Schiro Program Room, MLK Library 5th Floor
Kristen Amiro
Mount Saint Vincent University
“Suzy's Gold Star: A Holistic Education”
Bill Lancaster
Texas A&M University-Commerce
“Subtle Sedition and Saintly Subversion: Satire and Parody in Steinbeck’s Sweet Thursday”
10:30AM - 11:45PM (Concurrent Sessions)
Writers, Doctors, and Scientists
Schiro Program Room, MLK Library 5th Floor
Donald Kohrs
Stanford University
“Ed Ricketts and Jack Calvin: The Publishing of Between Pacific Tides”
Kiyoshi Yamauchi
Niimi College, Japan
“John Steinbeck in Sick”
Jeff Yeager
West Virginia University
“Steinbeck's Literary Depictions of Physicians”
Travels with Charley
Cultural Heritage Center, MLK Library 5th Floor
Cecilia Donohue
Retired Scholar
“Logos, Ethos, Pathos, Caninus: Rhetorical Strategies in Steinbeck/Steinbeckian Dog Memoir”
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Steinbeck as an International Writer / Thurs, May 5
Kylie Regan
Purdue University
“Steinbeck as Satirist: Travels with Charley and the American Masculinity Crisis”
Andrew Vogel
Kutztown State University of Pennsylvania
“The Cognitive Landscape, Hermeneutics, and Alienation in John Steinbeck’s Travels with
Charley”
12:00PM - 1:30PM
Banquet Luncheon
Center for Steinbeck Studies, MLK Library 5th Floor
Banquet Speaker
Robert DeMott
Edwin and Ruth Kennedy Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Ohio University
1:45PM - 3:00PM (Concurrent Sessions)
Steinbeck's Influence on Contemporary Authors
Schiro Program Room, MLK Library 5th Floor
Sonia Hamilton
University of California - Berkeley
“The Legacy of Steinbeck's Interchapters: The Effects of Palimpsest on Group Consciousness
and Universality”
Brian Railsback
Western Carolina University
“A 21st Century Grapes of Wrath: Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones”
Netta Bar Yosef-Paz
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
“Filthy ‘Others’ in 1990s Environmentalist Fiction: from Steinbeck to Boyle”
Steinbeck in Eastern Europe
Cultural Heritage Center, MLK Library 5th Floor
Danica Čerče
University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
“The Popularity of Steinbeck's East of Eden among Slovene Readers”
Luchen Li
University of New Hampshire
“Understanding International Conflicts with Steinbeck through His Russian Experience”
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Steinbeck as an International Writer / Thurs, May 5
Susan Shillinglaw
San Jose State University
“Steinbeck in Russia”
3:15PM - 4:30PM (Concurrent Sessions)
The Grapes of Wrath
Schiro Program Room, MLK Library 5th Floor
William Brevda
Central Michigan University
“Specters of Joad”
Chaker Mohamed Ben Ali and Salah Eddine Merouani (presented in absentia)
University of 20th August 1955, Skikda, Algeria
“Echoes of Islam in The Grapes of Wrath”
Kotaro Nakagaki
Daito Bunka University, Japan
“Get Your Kicks on Route 66: Cultural Legacy of Steinbeck’s Hobo Images in American Popular
Culture”
Steinbeck’s Philosophy
Cultural Heritage Center, MLK Library 5th Floor
Richard Hart
Bloomfield College
“Steinbeck and Western Philosophy”
Fred Jensen
University of Buffalo
“Eternal Liminality, Transitions, and Weology”
Arun Khevariya (presented in absentia)
Kendriya Vidyalaya, Chhatarpur, M.P., India
“Biological Determinism in John Steinbeck: A Study of His Novels with Reference to The
Pastures of Heaven, The Long Valley, Of Mice and Men, and East of Eden”
Cody Roane
West Virginia University
“’The Snake’: A Teleological Mystery”
5:00PM – 7:00PM
Dinner on your own
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Steinbeck as an International Writer / Thurs, May 5
7:00PM – 9:30PM
Cinco de Mayo “Pachanga” Ceremony by Playwright Luis Valdez (7:00pm –
8:15pm) followed by a Reading by U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera (8:15pm
– 9:30pm)
Hammer Theatre, 3rd Street and Paseo San Antonio (1 block from the library)
SJSU alumnus Luis Valdez is a playwright, actor, writer and film director. Regarded as the
father of Chicano theater in the United States, Valdez is best known for his play Zoot Suit, his
movie La Bamba, and his creation of El Teatro Campesino. This “pachanga” ceremony is
directed by his son, Kinan Valdez, currently the Producing Artistic Director of El Teatro
Campesino, and staged in conjunction with the SJSU Theatre Department.
The son of migrant farmworkers, Juan Felipe Herrera is the author of 28 books of poetry,
novels for young adults, and collections for children, including “Half the World in Light: New and
Selected Poems" (2008), winner of National Book Critics Circle Award and the International
Latino Book Award. His other honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and
the National Endowment for the Arts, two Latino Hall of Fame Poetry Awards, and a PEN /
Beyond Margins Award. Elected a Chancellor for the Academy of American Poets in 2011, Prior
to his appointment as United States Poet Laureate in 2015, Herrera served as the Poet
Laureate of California from 2012-2015.
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Steinbeck as an International Writer / Fri, May 6
Friday, May 6
8:00AM - 9:00AM
Continental Breakfast
Center for Steinbeck Studies, MLK Library 5th Floor
9:00AM - 10:15AM (Concurrent Sessions)
Steinbeck and Ethnicity
Schiro Program Room, MLK Library 5th Floor
Jeanette Rumsby
Independent Scholar
“On the ‘Lee’ Side: Chinese Representation in Steinbeck's Works”
Didier Arcade Loumbouzi (presented in absentia)
Université Marien Ngouabi, Brazzaville, République du Congo
“Ethnic minorities and John Steinbeck's global vision”
Mimi Gladstein
University of Texas at El Paso
“Steinbeck's ‘Mexifilia’ from Tortilla Flat to Viva Zapata!”
Ecocriticism and Social Ecology
Cultural Heritage Center, MLK Library 5th Floor
Khawla Bendjemil
University of May 8th,1945, Guelma, Algeria / SIUE, Illinois, USA
“An Ecocritical Reading of John Steinbeck’s To a God Unknown”
Lowell Wyse
Loyola University Chicago
“Access and Aridity in Steinbeck’s Watersheds”
10:30AM
Departure for Steinbeck Festival in Salinas (optional)
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